Literary Devices

juxtaposition: When two opposing things are placed side by side for comparision

example: The rosebush to the prison door and the Scarlet letter to the sad colored garments in The Scarlet Letter

allusion: reference in a work to another piece of literature

example: Slaughterhouse Five’s constant allusions to the Bible/Christianity

ambiguity: meaning of something is unknown

example:

doppelgänger: a “twin” of another character. Can be seen as ghostly.

example: Hester is compared to the ghost in The Scarlet Letter. Billy Pilgrim compared to Cinderella in Slaughterhouse Five

repetition: When the author repeats a word or phrase, usually to deliver an effect or emphasis

Example: The repetition of the word “creep” in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Dramatic Irony: When the reader knows something that the character doesn’t.

Example: The knowledge that roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband in The Scarlet Letter.

Motif: A repeated idea or image in a piece of art.

Example: Hands and windows in Winesburg, Ohio

Double Entendre: A word that has two or more meanings at once.

Example: Chillingworth is called a leech in The Scarlet Letter, denoting him as a doctor and comparing him to a leech.

Diction: Word choice that the author uses

Example:

Syntax: The way words and punctuation are arranged on the page.

Example:

Intertextuality: When two pieces of literature have great similarities, unintentionally

Example: Roger Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter and the Black Man in “Young Goodman Brown”

hyperbolic imagery: using gross exaggeration for effect.

Example:

Symbol: An object that represents an idea bigger than itself.

Example: The Scarlet Letter in The Scarlet Letter. Billy’s impresario’s coat in Slaughterhouse-Five.

Mood/Tone: The way the author conveys the feeling of a scene.

Example: Arthur Miller’s use of rain at the climax of The Crucible.

Satire: When an author uses humor or hyperbole to comment on something in society.

Example: The Witch hunt scene by Monty Python

Irony: When the opposite of what you expect to happen happens.

Example: Hester Prynne being the most Christlike character in a Puritan Society. (The Scarlet Letter) The title of The Great Gatsby.

American Canon: Collection of American works that are considered our country’s greatest pieces of literature.

Example: Moby Dick, By Ernest Hemingway; The Great Gatsby, By F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bildungsroman: A coming of age story, the passage of a character from childhood to adulthood.

Example: “The White Heron” is a coming of age story for Sylvia

Androcentric: Man-Centered

Example: Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

Gynocentric:Woman-Centered

Example:

Patriarchal Society: society dominated by men

Example: The Cult of Domesticity

Epigraph: A short quotation at the beginning or a piece.

Example: The quatrain at the beginning of Slaughterhouse Five

Minimalism: When an artist uses few props or tricks in his art.

Example: Our Town

Theme: Main ideas that an author wants to convey in a piece of literature.

Example: Scarlet Letter: Humans should be true. Show freely to the world, etc.

Grotesque: A very ugly or comically distorted figure, creature, or image

Example: Characters in Winesburg, Ohio

unreliable narrator: A narrator of a story or novel who cannot be trusted

Example: Nick Carroway in The Great Gatsby

Non-Linear Storytelling: When a narrator jumps around in telling of a story.

Example: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Metafiction: The line between fiction and reality is blurred

Example: Slaughterhouse-Five